Apparatus and method for contacting blood with ozone

ABSTRACT

an apparatus, system, and method for contacting blood with ozone to kill microorganisms in the blood are described. The method involves injecting microbubbles of ozone containing gas into a flow of blood, preferably at a temperature of less than 12° C. The apparatus includes a blood flow conduit including a blood ozone contacting portion including a porous ozone injector. Figure to be published with the abstract:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for treatingbiological fluids with ozone. More particularly, the invention pertainsto methods and apparatus for treating blood with ozone.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that has been used as a disinfectant.Despite the corrosive and highly reactive nature of ozone, the use ofozone to kill or inactivate certain infectious agents in blood has beenexplored. For example, US 2005/0189302 A1 discloses a method ofinactivating viruses in blood by exposing the blood to ozone in agas-fluid contacting device that maximizes gas-fluid mass transfer. Thecontacting device contains spheres or rods to form a thin film of bloodand treatment is preferably performed at ambient temperature. WO2011/162805 A2 discloses methods for inactivating infectious prionproteins in blood by subjecting blood to an ozone/oxygen admixture usinga gas-fluid contacting device similar to that disclosed in US2005/0189302 A1.

WO 93/15779 A1 discloses a method of increasing the nitric oxideconcentration in the blood by contacting a sample of blood with ozonegas and ultraviolet radiation. The treated sample of blood isadministered to a patient to treat a variety of conditions includingbacterial, fungal, viral, and protozoal infection. The blood sample ismost preferably a volume of 1 to 50 mL and is most preferably treated ata temperature of 42.5° C. for approximately 3 minutes.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,688 discloses a method for inactivating viruses,bacteria, fungi and protozoa in blood by contacting a flow of blood withcounter-flow of an ozone-oxygen mixture for about 16 seconds using agas-liquid contact apparatus.

Treating milk and other liquid foodstuffs with ozone to kill bacteria isknown. WO 2008/066470 discloses a method for inhibiting bacterial growthin milk by exposing the milk to a finely divided gas stream containingozone at ambient temperature. The method of ozonation disclosed inWO2008/066470 can be improved regarding efficiency. Also, thetemperature of the liquid ozonized is ambient temperature. The ambienttemperature may be an ambient storage and transport temperature, but thetemperature at the ozonation location is not disclosed as needingtemperature control in the method disclosed in WO2008/066470.

Although ozone has been used for killing microbes in large volumes ofdairy products, such methods would destroy blood cells and inactivateenzymes and other proteins in the blood.

There is a need for methods and apparatus to treat and prevent seriousbacterial, fungal, and viral infections that are not susceptible totreatment by conventional means such as antibiotic, antifungal, andantiviral drugs. Although ozone is known to kill microbes in blood,previously described methods do not provide adequate microbe killingwithout damaging the blood. Thus, there is a need for apparatus andmethods for ozonating blood in a way that kills microbes in the blood ofa patient without damaging blood cells or interfering with the normalfunction of blood in the patient. Related apparatus and method may alsobe used to ozonate blood before and/or after storage to kill microbes inthe blood before storage and/or administration to a patient. Human andnonhuman animal patients suffering, for example, from microbialinfection in the blood would benefit from such apparatus and methods,particularly in cases where convention drug therapy is not effective.Hence, an improved system, apparatus, and method for contacting bloodwith ozone would be advantageous.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention preferably seek to mitigate,alleviate or eliminate one or more deficiencies, disadvantages or issuesin the art, such as the above-identified, singly or in any combinationby providing an apparatus for contacting blood with ozone, an ozonationsystem comprising the apparatus, and a method for contacting blood withozone, according to the appended patent claims. While the invention isdescribed with respect to the ozonation of blood and contacting bloodwith ozone, the invention is applicable to the ozonation of otherbiological fluids such as blood plasma, blood cell suspensions, andsuspensions of other cell types.

The invention is disclosed in the appended independent patent claims.Some particular embodiments of the invention are defined in the appendeddependent claims.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, an ozonation apparatus forcontacting blood with ozone is provided. The apparatus comprises anozone injector adapted to inject microbubbles of ozone containing gasinto a flow of blood in an ozonation zone of an ozone contactingchamber, or ozonation chamber. The apparatus may optionally comprisemeans for cooling blood entering the ozonation chamber and/or means forwarming blood exiting the ozonation chamber.

According to a further aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus forcontacting blood with ozone gas is provided. The apparatus has anozonation chamber, a blood flow inlet, and a blood flow outlet. Theozonation chamber includes an ozone injector 3 configured for connectionto a source of ozone containing gas and to inject bubbles of ozonecontaining gas into a flow of blood through the ozonation chamber. Theflow of blood is directed vertically upwards through the blood ozonationchamber during injection. Suitable conduits are provided for directingthe flow in relation to gravity so that the flow is vertically upwardsat injection of ozone into the blood. The ozonation chamber and theozone injector are configured such that the vertically upwards flow ofblood through the blood ozonation chamber entrains bubbles of ozonecontaining gas into said flow of blood for said ozonation. The gasbubbles become dissolved in the blood when entrained therein.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, a blood ozonation systemis provided. The system comprises the ozonation apparatus, a source ofozone connected to the ozone injector, conduits for receiving blood intoand delivering blood from the apparatus, and pumping means for pumpingblood through the system. The system optionally comprises cooling meansfor cooling the blood before entering the ozonation apparatus and/orwarming means for warming ozonated blood leaving the ozonationapparatus.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, a method forcontacting blood with ozone is provided. The method involves contactingblood with micro-sized bubbles of a gas containing ozone. The blood isat a temperature of less than 12° C. when contacted with themicrobubbles, the microbubbles have a mean diameter of less than 5 μm.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, a method forcontacting blood with ozone is provided. The method involves receivingblood, cooling the blood to a temperature of less than 12° C.,contacting the chilled blood with microbubbles of a gas containingozone, optionally warming the blood to a warmed temperature, anddelivering the blood to a storage container or storage vessel.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, a method for treatinga patient suffering from microbial infection is provided. The methodinvolves receiving blood from the patient, cooling the blood to atemperature of less than 12° C., contacting the chilled blood withmicrobubbles of a gas containing ozone, warming the blood, and returningthe blood to the patient. The method is advantageously performed usingthe system or apparatus of the disclosure.

Features for the second and subsequent aspects of the disclosure are asfor the first aspect mutatis mutandis.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical andscientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one ofordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andwill not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly so defined herein.

The term “microorganism” as used herein is synonymous with “microbe” andmeans any microorganism including bacteria, virus, fungi or yeast, andincluding spores or dormant forms of such a microorganisms.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects, features and advantages of which embodiments ofthe invention are capable of will be apparent and elucidated from thefollowing description of embodiments of the present invention, referencebeing made to the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a schematic of a first embodiment of an ozonation systemcomprising an apparatus for contacting blood with ozone.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of a second embodiment of an ozonation systemcomprising an apparatus for contacting blood with ozone.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of method steps for a method for contacting bloodwith ozone.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described withreference to the accompanying drawings. This invention may, however, beembodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limitedto the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments areprovided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and willfully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Theterminology used in the detailed description of the embodimentsillustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limitingof the invention. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements.

A first embodiment of an ozonation system according to the invention isshown in FIG. 1. The apparatus comprises an ozonation apparatus 1comprising an ozonation chamber 2 comprising an inlet 2 a and an outlet2 b, and an ozone injector 3. The ozone injector 3 is configured to beconnected to a source of ozone gas 4.

The source of ozone gas may be an ozone generator that produces ozonefrom oxygen that may produce a gas mixture that contains ozone andoxygen at a certain ratio. Alternative gaseous ozone sources may beprovided as known to the skilled person.

The ratio of ozone to oxygen in the gas mixture may for example rangefrom 5% to 20% ozone and from 95% to 80% oxygen. Preferable values of anozone to oxygen ratios are 5/95, 10/90, 15/85 and 20/80.

The ozone injector may be made from porous material, for example, fromsintered stainless steel. Alternatively or in addition, it may be madefrom sintered ceramic. Alternatively, or in addition other gas injectorsmay be provided to provide ozone gas to enrich a flow of blood to beozonized. Other gas injectors may be nozzle based. The porous materialhas in examples a uniform mean pore size of less than 5 μm in diameter,such as 4 μm, 3 μm, 2 μm, 1 μm, 0.5 μm, or 0.2 μm. The pore size ispreferably between about 0.2 μm and about 2.0 μm.

The ozone gas injector 3 may further comprises a flow meter, pressurevalve, pressure sensor, and/or controlling element to facilitatemonitoring and/or control the pressure and/or flow rate of gas beinginjected.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 shows an ozonation apparatus 1 comprisinga porous ozone injector 3 inside an ozonation chamber 2. The ozoneinjector is cylindrical in the example. The ozonation chamber isconfigured to guide a flow of blood around the porous microbubblereleasing surface of the ozone injector 3. In the example, the ozoneinjector is cylindrical. Preferably, the cylindrical ozone injector 3 isarranged co-axially in the cylindrical ozonation chamber foradvantageous ozonation efficiency. A gap exists between the inner wallof the ozonation chamber 2 and the porous bubble releasing surface ofthe ozone injector 3. The bubble as preferably microbubbles aselucidated herein.

The flow of blood over the microbubble releasing surface is preferably alaminar flow to minimize turbulence in the blood flow.

The blood flow is preferably directed vertically upwards so that gasbubbles entrain in the flow of blood. By directing the flow of gas in avertical direction, gas bubbles are entrained upwardly. The gas bubblesare also provided to the entire flow of blood, independent of gravity.The gas bubbles are for instance evenly provided around a cylindricalozone injector. In this manner, portions of blood that are not enrichedwith gas comprising ozone are avoided. The vertical direction providesthus advantageous (short) time of gas comprising ozone with the flow ofblood until the gas is dissolved in the blood. This is important as forinstance remaining gas bubbles returned to a patient have to avoided. Inaddition, foaming of the blood flow is advantageously reduced or avoidedby the vertical arrangement of the blood flow.

Compare e.g. horizontal arrangements as described in WO2008/066470,where portions liquid flow below an injector are not well or not at allozonized as the bubbles raise upwardly along the injector, i.e. the flowportion above the injector is better ozonized than that below.

The shape of the ozone injector 3 need not be cylindrical and not allsurfaces of the ozone injector need to be in contact with blood. Onealternative configuration is shown in FIG. 2.

The ozone injector 3 is arranged in the ozonation chamber 2 such thatblood flow is restricted to pass through ozonation chamber 2 within amaximum distance (d) of a porous surface of the ozone injector 3 fromwhich microbubbles are released. The maximum distance (d) is preferablyless than about 2 mm, such as 1.5 mm, 1.0 mm, 0.75 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.25 mm,or 0.1 mm or any distance within this range.

The ozonation chamber 2 and ozone injector 3 are designed to provide anozonation zone 5 in which micrometer sized bubbles of ozone containinggas mix with and dissolve in a flow of blood.

When blood and ozone containing gas are flowing through the ozonationchamber 1, an ozonation region 5, indicated as the region between thehorizontal dashed lines in FIG. 1, exists in which microbubbles areentrained in the blood flow. The bubbles are dissolved in the bloodalong the entrainment path in the blood flow.

The duration of ozone contacting time, or dwell time, is determined by anumber of factors. These factors include the concentration of ozone inthe gas, and the flow rate of the gas. Another factor is the temperatureof the blood. The temperature at ozonation is preferably controlled inexamples of the disclosure. Moreover, the flow rate of the blood is sucha factor. Any or all of these factors may be measured, supervised, orcontrolled to optimize ozonation. The factors maybe computer controlledby controlling gas pressure and flow from the source of ozone 4.Alternatively, or in addition, the operation of blood pumping means 10may be controlled. Optionally blood cooling means 11 are controlled foradvantageous blood ozonation.

A system according to an example of the present disclosure may comprisemore than one ozonation apparatus. For example, a plurality of ozoneapparatus may be arranged in parallel with respect to the flow of blood.

Alternatively, or in addition, a single ozone apparatus can comprise aplurality of ozone injectors. Each or some of the plurality of ozoneinjectors may be arranged such that all blood moving through theozonation chamber passes within the maximum distance (d) of at least oneof the ozone injectors.

The ozonation system shown in FIG. 1 additionally may, as illustrated,comprises blood pumping means 10. The blood pumping means 10 arearranged for pumping blood through the apparatus or system from a bloodinlet portion 8 to a blood outlet portion 9. Suitable blood pumpingmeans 10 for pumping blood are known in the art and may comprise, forexample, a peristaltic pump, a roller pump, or a centrifugal pump.Pumping means 10 may be capable of pumping blood through the system at asuitable flow rate. Suitable flow rates range for example from about 0.1Liters/hour to about 12 Liters/hour.

The system may also comprise an ozone source 4, such as a medical gradeozone generator. The ozone generator is fluidly connected to the ozoneinjector 3 by a gas conduit 6. The gas conduit 6 may comprise a one-wayvalve 7 to prevent backflow of blood into the ozone generator 6. Suchbackflow may occur in case of, for example, a sudden pressure drop inthe gas conduit 6.

The ozone source 4 is preferably capable of delivering ozone at aconstant pressure. The ozone source 4 is preferably capable ofdelivering at least 10% ozone at such a constant pressure. The constantpressure of gas is at least 0.1 bar and preferably up to 0.5 bar, 0.75bar or 1.0 bar at the ozone injector 3.

The system may additionally comprise a source of one or more inertgasses that may be mixed with the ozone containing gas before reachingthe ozone injector. Examples of inert gasses include nitrogen andhelium.

The blood contacting portions of the system may preferably be made ofany suitable biocompatible materials. Such materials include materialstypically used to transfer or store blood, such as those used in tubingfor transfusions or blood conducting portions of heart and lung machineor apheresis machines.

The blood entry portion 2 may comprise or be connectable to means forreceiving blood from a patient such as a hollow needle for insertion into a vein.

Alternatively or additionally, blood entry portion 2 may comprise meansfor receiving blood from a container of blood. Such container mayinclude a bag or bottle or an extracorporeal blood circulation devicesuch as an apheresis machine, dialysis machine, or heart and lunchmachine.

The ozonation system may comprise blood cooling means 11 positionedupstream of ozonation apparatus inlet 2 a and configured to cool theblood to a chilled temperature of less than 12° C. before the bloodenters the ozonation apparatus 1.

The blood cooling means 11 may comprise any suitable blood heatexchanger used in the medical arts to cool blood and may be configuredfor computer control of the temperature of the blood entering theozonation chamber 2.

The blood cooling means 11 is preferably controllable to cool said bloodto a temperature of between about 4° C. and about 12° C., to producechilled blood that is contacted with ozone containing gas in theozonation chamber 2.

It is understood that cooling is a relative term. If for instance bloodentering into the ozonation system has a temperature lower than desired,e.g. lower than between about 4° C. and about 12° C., it maybe providedto actually heat the blood to this preferred temperature range. This maybe the case for frozen blood preservatives, e.g. frozen blood plasma.Cooling can be understood a term relative to ambient room temperature.Cooling is also relative physiological body temperature if blood isinput to the ozonation system at body temperature from a patient.

At ozonation in the ozonation chamber, the blood thus has preferably atemperature of less than 12° C. It preferably has a temperature betweenabout 4° C. and about 12° C. The chilled blood is then contacted at thistemperature with ozone containing gas in the ozonation chamber 2.

Additionally or alternatively, the ozonation system may comprise bloodwarming means 12. The blood warming means is preferably positioneddownstream the ozonation chamber. The blood warming means is for examplepositioned downstream of the outlet 2b from the ozonation apparatus 1.The blood warming means is configured to warm ozonated blood to atemperature above the blood temperature in the ozonation chamber 2.

The blood warming means 12 may be configured to warm blood to a bodytemperature of a human or nonhuman animal, e.g. between about 24° C. toabout 39° C.

Blood warming means 12 may additionally or alternatively be configuredto adjust the temperature of the blood to a storage temperature. It isunderstood that warming is a relative term. If for instance bloodleaving the ozonation system has a temperature higher than desired toexit the apparatus or system, it maybe provided to actually, potentiallyfurther, cool the blood to this desired temperature. This may be thecase when it is desired to provide ozonated frozen blood preservatives,e.g. frozen blood plasma, with advantageous storage properties comparedto not ozonated blood products.

Blood warming will in most examples include feeding heat energy to theozonated blood to increase the temperature thereof.

Blood warming means 12 may be computer controlled similarly to bloodcooling means 11.

The system may comprise a blood processing unit 13 comprising means forremoving bubbles, preferably downstream the ozone injector.Alternatively, or in addition, the system may comprise a bloodprocessing unit 13 comprising means for removing foam, preferablydownstream the ozone injector. Alternatively, or in addition, the systemmay comprise a blood processing unit 13 comprising means for removingthrombi, preferably downstream the ozone injector. In this manner,undesired bubbles, foam, thrombi, and/or other material may be suitablyremoved. The treatment may be at least partially be done upstream theozonation chamber. The treatment is preferably done downstream (relativeblood flow) the ozonation chamber, for instance before the blood can bedelivered to a patient or to a blood storage container.

Blood processing unit 13 may comprise, for example, a filter forremoving particles. Alternatively, or in addition, the blood processingunit 13 may comprise a blood reservoir comprising an inlet regionseparated from an outlet region by a membrane that is permeable forblood, but impermeable for air bubbles.

A blood processing unit 13 downstream the ozonation chamber may beparticularly useful in embodiments of the invention used to ozonateblood that is to be delivered to a patient.

All or parts of the apparatus and/or system may be combined with and/orcontrolled by a computerized control system 19. The computerized controlsystem 19 may be electrically coupled to sensors, actuators, valves,and/or switches in the ozonation system.

The control system 19 may comprise software having code segmentsconfigured to control operational parameters of the apparatus.Operational parameters include parameters such as blood and gas flowrates and pressures, the concentration of ozone and other gasses in theozone containing gas, blood temperature in the different portions of theapparatus, and blood flow rates in various portions of the apparatusand/or system conduit based upon sensor data received from pressure,flow, temperature, and/or chemical sensors provided in various portionsof the apparatus.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an ozonation system comprising analternatively configured ozonation apparatus 1. Only the top surface ofthe ozone injector 3 is in contact with blood and injects microbubblesof ozone containing gas into a flow of blood that entrains the injectedmicrobubbles. An ozonation region 5 is located directly above the ozoneinjector 3 in which the microbubbles completely dissolve in the blood.

Without intending to be bound by theory, it is believed that the ozoneis also entirely consumed by chemical reactions with the blood withinthe ozonation region 5.

The ozonation chamber 2 is configured such that all of the blood flowpasses within a maximum distance (d) from the upper surface of the ozoneinjector 3. The maximum distance (d) is preferably less than about 2 mm,such as 1.5 mm, 1.0 mm, 0.75 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.25 mm, or 0.1 mm or anydistance within this range.

Alternatively, the diameter of blood flow can be narrowed above theozone injector 3 such that a flow of blood entrains a flow ofmicrobubbles in an ozonation zone 5 above the injector.

With such an embodiment, the maximum distance from the surface of theozone injector 3 may be greater than in other embodiments. The diameterof the flow in the ozonation zone 5 is preferably less than about 2 mm,such as 1.5 mm, 1.0 mm, 0.75 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.25 mm, or 0.1 mm or anydistance within this range.

In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a method for contactingblood with ozone (FIG. 3). In a first example, the method comprisesreceiving a flow of blood 301 into an ozonation system. The method mayinclude injecting microbubbles of ozone containing gas 303 into the flowof blood. Further, the method may include delivering the ozonated bloodfrom the system 305. Preferably, the blood is at a temperature of lessthan 12° C. during the injecting of ozone. Ozone containing gas ispreferably provided as microbubbles that have a mean diameter of lessthan 5 μm. The temperature of the blood during ozone injection ispreferably between about 4° C. and about 10° C., such as 5° C., 6° C.,7° C., 8° C., or 9° C.

The ozone containing gas is normally produced by an ozone generator thatproduces a mixture of ozone and oxygen comprising between 5% and 20%ozone, a range and ratio as described above.

The concentration of ozone in the ozone containing gas injected into theflow of blood is preferably less than 10 grams/m³ and more preferablyless than 5 grams/m³. Preferably, the concentration of ozone in theozone containing gas is at least 1 gram/m³.

The pressure of gas being injected may be for example, at least 0.1 barand preferably up to 0.5 bar, 0.75 bar or 1.0.

The ratio of the volumetric flow rate of blood and the volumetric flowrate of ozone containing gas may be adjusted to be in a range of fromabout 10:1 to about 50:1.

The volumetric flow rate of blood may be in the range of from 0.1Liters/hour to 12 Liters/hour, for example 3 Liters/hour to 6Liters/hour.

The delivered dose of ozone in the blood flow is less than 10 ppm, andmay be for example, 1 ppm, 2 ppm, 3 ppm, 4 ppm, 5 ppm, 6 ppm, 7 ppm, 8ppm, or 9 ppm.

The flow of blood is preferably a laminar flow to minimize turbulence.

The flow rates and pressures are controlled or set such that themicrobubbles have a substantially uniform mean diameter of less than 5μm in diameter.

The flow rates and pressures are controlled or set such that themicrobubbles completely dissolve in the flow of blood in less than 10seconds, preferably less than 5 seconds, and more preferably less than 2seconds.

Controlling the flow and pressure of the ozone containing gas and bloodflow rate in this way can prevent the microbubbles from coalescing intolarger bubbles so that essentially all of the microbubbles entrained inthe blood flow have the desired diameter.

If the method is to be performed on blood from a patient or other sourceof blood that has a temperature higher than the ozonation temperature,the method may further comprise cooling the blood 302 before ozone isinjected into the flow of blood 303.

If the blood is to be returned to a patient or stored at a temperatureabove the ozonation temperature, the blood may be warmed 304 beforebeing delivered from the system 305.

If the ozonated blood is to be stored, warming the blood may not benecessary, or alternatively cooling is provided as describe above.

The flow of blood received into the ozonation system may optionally bepre-treated 301 a, for instance by a blood processing unit upstream theozonation location. Alternatively or in addition, for example, ananticoagulant or other drug may be added to the blood flow.Alternatively, or in addition, addition of such substance may beprovided to ozonated blood, i.e. downstream the ozonation location.

Extracorporeal treatment of blood introduces a possible undesired bloodtampering, such as bubble formation, blood foaming, and the formation ofclots or precipitates. The method may therefore include one or more posttreatment processing steps 304 a to remove foam, bubbles, clots, and/orprecipitates, as described above.

Blood ozone contacting time and temperature may be optimized for killingparticular microorganisms, or microbes.

The contacting may be comprise the administration of drugs that may havean additive or synergistic effect with the ozone to kill microbes and/ora protective effect to reduce unwanted or adverse effects associatedwith contacting blood with an ozone containing gas.

The present invention has been described above with reference tospecific embodiments. However, other embodiments than the abovedescribed are equally possible within the scope of the invention asdefined in the appended patent claims.

1. An apparatus for contacting blood with ozone gas, said apparatuscomprising: an ozonation chamber, a blood flow inlet, and a blood flowoutlet wherein: said ozonation chamber comprises an ozone injectorconfigured for connection to a source of ozone containing gas and toinject bubbles of ozone containing gas into a flow of blood through theozonation chamber, wherein the flow of blood is vertically upwardsthrough the blood ozonation chamber during injection, and said ozonationchamber and said ozone injector are configured such that the verticallyupwards flow of blood through the blood ozonation chamber entrains saidbubbles of ozone containing gas into said flow of blood.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises means forcooling a blood flow entering said ozonation chamber, preferably to atemperature of less than 12° C.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinsaid ozone injector is a microporous ozone injector that has a uniformmean pore size of less than 2 μm.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinsaid ozone injector comprises a sintered stainless steel or a sinteredceramic through which said ozone containing gas is injectable to providesaid bubbles of ozone containing gas.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein said ozonation chamber is shaped to provide a laminar blood flowaround said ozone injector.
 6. A system for ozonating blood comprisingthe apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a pumping means for pumpingblood through said apparatus and a source of ozone containing gasfluidically coupled to said ozone injector.
 7. The system of claim 6,further comprising a means for cooling a blood flow entering saidapparatus, preferably to a temperature of less than 12° C.
 8. The systemof claim 6, further comprising a means for warming a blood flow exitingsaid apparatus
 9. A method for contacting blood with ozone, said methodcomprising: receiving a flow of blood into an ozonation apparatus;injecting bubbles of an ozone containing gas into said flow of blood;and delivering the ozonated blood from the apparatus wherein the flow ofblood is vertically upwards during the injecting of ozone. 10.(canceled)
 11. The method of claim 9 further comprising cooling saidflow of blood to a temperature of less than 12° C. before said receivingof said blood flow.
 12. The method of claim 9, including cooling saidblood in said flow of blood upstream a location of said injection ofozone, for providing that said blood is at a temperature of less than12° C. during the injecting of ozone.
 13. The method of claim 9,including warming said ozonated blood in a blood flow exiting saidapparatus, preferably upstream said location of said injection of ozone.14. The method of claim 9, including providing said bubbles asmicrobubbles that have a mean diameter of less than 5 μm.
 15. The methodof claim 9, wherein said ozone containing gas comprises less than 10grams of ozone per cubic meter or wherein said ozone containing gascomprises 5% to 20% ozone by weight and 95% to 80% oxygen by weight,preferably 90% oxygen and 10% ozone.
 16. The method of claim 9, whereinsaid flow of blood during said injecting is from about 0.1 Liters/hourto about 10 Liters/hour and a flow rate of said ozone containing gas isabout 0.01 Liters per hour to about 1 Liter per hour.
 17. The method ofclaim 9, including dissolving said bubbles completely in said blood insaid flow of blood less than 10 seconds after said injecting for saidozonation of said blood.
 18. The method of claim 9, including injectingsaid ozone containing gas into said flow of blood at a pressure of lessthan 1 bar.
 19. The method of claim 9, adjusting a flow rate of blood,an injection pressure of ozone containing gas, and/or a flow rate ofozone containing gas; and preventing or minimizing a coalescence ofbubbles during said injecting by said adjusting.
 20. (canceled)
 21. Themethod of claim 9, including in vitro ozonation of said blood.
 22. Themethod of claim 21, wherein said in-vitro ozonation of said blood ismade prior to storage of said blood and providing enhanced storage timeof said ozonated blood compared to said blood when not ozonated.
 23. Themethod of claim 21, wherein said in-vitro ozonation of said blood ismade after storage of said blood and/or before administration of saidblood to a patient. 24.-34. (canceled)